Lobelia pteropoda (C.Presl) A.DC.

Lobeliaceae, M. Thulin. Flora Zambesiaca 7:1. 1983

Habit

Annual or perennial (?) ± erect or decumbent herb up to 80 cm. tall.

Stem

Stems rather slender, ribbed, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.

Leaves

Leaves with the lamina triangular to very broadly ovate, up to 50 x 40 mm., acute to obtuse and mucronulate at the apex, truncate to cordate at the base, ± pubescent on both sides; all leaves with a winged ±, pubescent petiole up to 10–60 mm. long; leaf–margin very coarsely dentate or crenate with mucronulate teeth; venation distinct beneath.

Flowers

Flowers in lax, up to 6–flowered, pedunculate racemes; pedicels 3–7 mm. long, pubescent; bracts linear, up to 7 mm. long, entire, ± pubescent; bracteoles at or near the base of the pedicel, linear, up to 1 mm. long, often broadened at the tip,:±: pubescent.

Hypanthium

Hypanthium narrowly to broadly obconical, ± 8–nerved, glabrous or ± pubescent.

Calyx

Calyx–lobes narrowly triangular, 3–4·5 mm. long, entire, ± pubescent, somewhat gibbous at the base.

Corolla

Corolla 16–23 mm. long, pale blue to mauvish or white, with two longitudinal crests in the mouth of the tube, split to the base on the back, ± pubescent on the outside of the lobes, puberulous inside on the bottom of the tube.

Filaments

Filaments linear, glabrous, connate above.

Anthers

Anther–tube 2–2·5 mm. long, all anthers densely hairy at the apex, otherwise glabrous or with a few straight hairs on the connectives outside.

Ovary

Ovary semisuperior to subinferior.

Fruits

Capsule ± 8–nerved, glabrous or ± pubescent, with 2 valves ± 3 mm. long.

Seeds

Seeds ± broadly elliptic in outline, somewhat compressed, ± 0·7 mm. long, almost smooth, dark brown.